Lame duck?

The term “lame duck” is being tossed around by commentators in reference to the apparent failures being witnessed with the launch of the President’s health care overhaul. The other issue left untouched by the President into his second term thus far is immigration. The question is popping up among some Democrats wondering whether they are better off sticking with the President or striking off on their own, especially those facing voters in 2014.

Democrats are increasingly separating themselves from President Barack Obama, and the damage from the debacle of the health care plan rollout has negated all injury done to the Republicans because of the government shutdown, a political strategist said Sunday at the opening of the Schwab Impact Conference.

“I’ve never seen a president become a lame duck this early,” Greg Valliere, the chief political strategist of Potomac Research Group, told a ballroom full of financial advisers. “The only thing he can get done now is through regulatory policy.”

Although Mr. Valliere said the health insurance program could be delayed if its computer systems still aren’t working properly in a month, the earliest that Obamacare could possibly be killed is spring 2017, he said.

As for the economy, forecasters remained generally upbeat.

Stocks appear undervalued when looking at forward earnings, which will give U.S. markets breathing room in the face of slower earnings growth, said Liz Ann Sonders, Charles Schwab’s chief investment strategist. Long-term sentiment suggests that “we are not near the euphoria that tends to mark the end of a bull market,” she said at the pre-conference session Sunday.

Do you think the President is entering “lame duck” status or does he have the political muscle to push through more of his agenda?

Nate Ashworth is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of Election Central. He's been blogging elections and politics for almost a decade. He started covering the 2008 Presidential Election which turned into a full-time political blog in 2012 and 2016.

11 COMMENTS

Is it so hard for the administration to do two things at once? Seems like with the number of executives and staff we are sustaining in the White House and in the Congress we ought to be ableto tackle the health care problems and Immigration reform at the same time.

The Senate in June passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill on a bipartisan 68-32 vote. The bill has languished in the House of Representative since that time with Speaker John Boehner saying he will pursue a “step-by-step process” to fix the “broken immigration system”. Senator John McCain, an architect of the Senate bill, told a Georgetown University forum that the estimated 11 million people who are in this country illegally are here to stay, and that they will “self-deport … when pigs fly.” So the administration has to wait for Speaker John Boehner to do his step by step.

Obvious…I live in a border state that has 1.68 million illegal immigrants. This does not include the documented (green card) immigrants. About 62 % of these are from Mexico. These people are forced to live in the shadows, work for pittance because companies know they won’t report being degraded and underpaid. Show me a toll road in Texas that these men didn’t do back breaking work on. They clean our homes, do our landscaping, wash dishes in diners, any menial work they can find and are happy to be here. Yes, some are criminal but not every jail mate in Texas is brown. By the way, you are not a criminal until you have been convicted by judge or jury. I firmly believe that all immigrants should be treated exactly as Cuban immigrants. As soon as their feet touches American soil they are refugees, eligible for housing, food stamps,all the goodies. At the end of one year, they can become a US citizen if they care to.

Has it never occurred to you that the very soil we stand on belonged to various Indian Tribes. Our forefathers were illegal immigrants to this land. We became combative and took the land by force,especially true of Texas.

Tess / obvious – the ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS did not come to the U.S. because they think that TX, NM, CO, AZ, CA is their land or any other reason. They came because no matter how bad it is here it is better than where they came from and many send money back to their real “home”. Some also come to be terrorists and to infiltrate to change America’s ideology.

YOU change the immigration laws to allow a higher volume of legal immigration and which countries get increases.

Further, an illegal immigrant should be treated as an illegal immigrant is from the country they fled.

The Cuban “dry feet” policy does not absolutely guarantee a path to citizenship.

Also Ms. Bleeding Heart Liberal are a couple other facts concerning Illegal Immigrants:
– Each year, more than 72,000 aliens are arrested for drug offenses in the U.S.

– Illegal aliens constitute over 25% of the federal prison population. Think about that for a moment. This means that a group which comprises less than 5% of the population is committing 25% percent of the crime.

– In some areas of the country, up to 12 % of felonies, 25% of burglaries and 34% of thefts are committed by illegal aliens.

– In Los Angeles alone, 95% of all outstanding warrants for homicide (which total approximately 1,200-1,500) target illegal aliens. Up to 2/3 of all fugitive felony warrants (approximately 17,000) are for illegal aliens.
In Lake County, Illinois 1/2 of the murderers and 21.5% of all criminals now in jail are illegal aliens, costing the county an annualized rate of $4,056, 945.
Approximately 400,000 illegal aliens who have committed crimes and have been given a deportation order are at large in the U.S. and their whereabouts unknown.

– Illegal immigration costs U.S. taxpayers about $113 billion a year at the federal, state and local level. The bulk of the costs — some $84 billion — are absorbed by state and local governments.

The annual outlay that illegal aliens cost U.S. taxpayers is an average amount per native-headed household of $1,117. The fiscal impact per household varies considerably because the greatest share of the burden falls on state and local taxpayers whose burden depends on the size of the illegal alien population in that locality

Education for the children of illegal aliens constitutes the single largest cost to taxpayers, at an annual price tag of nearly $52 billion. Nearly all of those costs are absorbed by state and local governments.

– Most illegal aliens do not pay income taxes. Among those who do, much of the revenues collected are refunded to the illegal aliens when they file tax returns. Many are also claiming tax credits resulting in payments from the U.S. Treasury.

House Committee Ways and Mean Joint Committee on Taxation April 18, 2012: An individual may claim a tax credit for each qualifying child under the age of 17. The maximum amount of the credit per child is $1,000 through 2012 and $500 thereafter. A child who is not a citizen, national, or resident of the United States cannot be a qualifying child. Our Congressmen evidently neglected to remember that a child born of illegal parents (regardless of race) on US soil Is automatically a US citizen and along with being a US citizen goes the entitlement of education. So, whoever gave you the price tag of 52 billion is racist and circumventing US law. In Texas, we have a tremendous number of exemplary people whose parental lineage was that of illegal immigrant. These men and women have become our congressional representatives, mayors of our larger cities, professors and bankers.

Contrary to popular belief, Illegal immigrants do pay taxes. They pay federal, state and local level taxes on all the goods they buy, even movie tickets, anything recreational. May illegals have fake social security numbers and pay into the system money that will never be withdrawn. The amount in question is evidenced by the Social Security Administration’s “suspense file” (taxes that cannot be matched to workers’ names and Social Security numbers), which grew $20 billion between 1990 and 1998.

As for criminal activities…I have no defense except to say that I do not understand, when our nation has police forces with drones, armored vehicles and swat teams ever ready, just how is approximately 400,000 illegal aliens who have committed crimes still on the loose?

tess,
to cross the us border illegally is a crime.
not to be caught, and thus unavailable to be judged in a court of law, does not change the fact that they are considered criminals at large under the law (for breaking the law in illegally crossing the us border).

the cubans you cite as an example for all immigrants to be treated alike, is another gem of your red herrings.

cubans are escaping a communist dictatorship by risking their lives to cross 90 miles of ocean on leaky boats, to gain freedom, and as such are granted political asylum (once they are processed by immigration and verified that they come here to escape a tyrant and not for economic gain). read up on the necessary qualifications to get a political asylum in the us.

while mexicans are illegally crossing the us border just to make more money here (no political persecution there, on part of the mexican gov) just financial gain for these criminals at large that are never processed by immigration in order to enter our nation.

not only are you throwing red herrings in your arguments again, but also comparing apples and oranges, and peaches and plums.

when i was a teenager, all the fastfood places were filled with american teenagers; 30 years later my teenage kids could not find a job for many months — mcdonalds, wendys, burger king, all have 35 year old mexicans at work, so no place for american highschool kids to get a job there.
the mexican invasion has nearly put all american teenagers out of traditional teenage jobs;
i used to cut lawns in the summer as a teenager, now that’s gone mexican too.

and you cite that cheap mexican labor is a boon — tell that to american teenagers that are out of job because of these illegals.

what is most amazing is that you place lawbreaking mexican illegals “rights” (entitled to none, since they’ve broken the law to illegally get here) above your own law-abiding citizens!

The president will always have political muscle because of low information voters. Low information voters…the portion added to informed voters that *just* pushes them over the top…support the president in whatever he does. If the democrat congressfolk don’t support him, they’ll be seen as betrayers….even though the low info voters would agree with them if asked on a philosophical/principal basis, the president is the low info hero…he fist bumps his wife after all…who does that?!? he’s just awesome…(tongue firmly in cheek)

However, the democrats are in a bad spot either way. The country doesn’t want immigration reform. The republican attempt under Bush is part of what caused the republicans to stay home and let the democrats win in 2006. Democrat voters, at least a majority of them, are not for amnesty either. They are for the high level description of ‘immigration reform’ and ensuring racism isn’t a part of the system. However, most democrats are not open borders people…just the donors and those elected.

If the republicans want a good show in the next election, they’ll promote immigration reform that doesn’t include amnesty…and the path to citizenship which *currently* exists. All they have to say is, we’ll streamline the immigration process, but citizenship already has a path. The majority of the citizens here today followed the path to citizenship (or their previous generations) currently in place, so it obviously works, and we don’t want to reward those who knowingly broke the law.

Really, the president will never be a lame duck. With low info voters and the majority of the press firmly behind him, he’ll always have political clout.

Reid will sit on GOP’s Upton bill because POTUS said he will veto it but Insurance companies will veto POTUS’s illegal declaration because it doesn’t go far enough.

Obama still thinks he has majority support and media support, but all congress up for election in 2014 is quickly backing away from Obama and the media will too if enough Dem’s do but still stay liberal.